Where to Start???

[EvenYourOdds]

We just moved about 6 months ago. I had the front yard dished up, leveled out, and reseeded. Now I want to plants some bushes in the front of the house. So I thought I would be a real go getter and try to do this myself. So I rented a tiller yesterday and after 3 hours of back aching work, all I have now is mud (Rained last night) and still alot of grass.

What I need to know is what is the best way to go around this? The dimensions I tried to till up are about 70 Feet along the house and about 5 feet in width. I don't want a straight line across, so made it with curves, to make it look a little better..haha in my opinion anyhow.

So I need some advice on what to do. Pretty much starting from scratch. I tilled it, but like I said still alot of grass. If I try to go in and pull all this grass up by hand, it would take forever. I am pretty sure it all needs to come up right?? would look bad with grass sticking up through the mulch. So what is the best way in getting the yard right to plant shrubs and flowers?

Any help would be appreciated.

[lawnstudent]

What kinda grass did ya just till into that soil? A lot of grasses have above and/or below ground stems called stolons and rhizomes. You cut these little fellas and they make new grass plants. Great way to spread grass. Put away the tiller and get you some of that Roundup stuff. You spray this on that grass after it has started growing in those beds again. Roudup is a systemic herbicide that gets into the grass plant and kills everything. Include'n those nasty little stolon and rhizome fellas. 10 days after spraying that Roundup stuff, you get yourself that tiller again and have yourself a good time tilling that soil. Plant your plants and cover the ground with some bark mulch to keep the weeds from come'n up, keep moisture in the soil & help build even better soil around your plants. Good luck & have fun.

jim

[Catcher]

Not sure what to do now,
for a 5' strip I'd have just 'peeled' the topsoil back and have good ground to work with.
Maybe you want to try a 'neutralize' to kill what's left of your grass - might have to wait a bit with the re-planting though.

[EvenYourOdds]

Well I thought this could be a weekend job, but that tells you what I know. Go out buy a tiller, get the ground cut up, rake up the old grass and plant some bushes... WOW!! Was I wrong.. :D